


MARRY YOUR HERO

by spicyshimmy



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: M/M, Schmoop, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-10
Updated: 2012-04-10
Packaged: 2017-11-03 10:23:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/380341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spicyshimmy/pseuds/spicyshimmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a conversation with Mo/Cuddlingthecthulhu to temper all the sad Mass Effect 3 feelings still trying to kill me. Years and years later, James asks Steve if he wants to get hitched. Happy ending AU of some kind I don't know. <i>‘Hey,’ James said, without looking over. One of his arms was around Steve’s shoulders; after so many years, he always felt the need to do the yawn-and-stretch every time they were watching an old Blasto vid at home, with tomorrow’s leftovers sitting on the coffee table, still playing the part of tonight’s dinner. ‘You wanna get hitched, Esteban?’</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	MARRY YOUR HERO

‘Hey,’ James said, without looking over. One of his arms was around Steve’s shoulders; after so many years, he always felt the need to do the yawn-and-stretch every time they were watching an old Blasto vid at home, with tomorrow’s leftovers sitting on the coffee table, still playing the part of tonight’s dinner. ‘You wanna get hitched, Esteban?’

It was a Wednesday, pretty unremarkable, no special time of year. Nothing like that. Steve’s thigh bumped James’s as he reached for the remote, already halfway there. No need to stop now.

Something like that—it could feel like forever.

‘Sure,’ Steve said, flipping the channels. ‘I made a man out of you already, didn’t I? Might as well make you an honest one, too.’

‘Sooner or later you’re gonna make me an old one,’ James said.

At least he’d stuck with _Esteban_ the whole time, never slid into _Viejo_.

*

There wasn’t any commemorative merchandise, no parade, no model Normandies with _just married_ signs hanging off the thrusters like there’d been everywhere when Shepard and Alenko finally tied the knot. Maybe finally was the wrong word. They moved fast; Kaidan, Shepard admitted, was the one who proposed. And James got so drunk that night; Steve remembered letting him have his slice of cake before James was even finished with his own.

It was that stuff Steve could picture more clearly than anything else. Not the vows, the moment of silence when the rings came out, the breath everybody shared and held at the same time—before Shepard said ‘I do’ and the crowd honestly went wild.

Two reporters were injured in the excitement outside. They had to be flown to a nearby hospital and everything, but what else did they expect when they were told no press?

‘Starting things out right, huh?’ Steve asked, shaking Shepard’s hand. ‘Congratulations, Shepard. Enjoy that honeymoon. I hear Vancouver’s pretty great this time of year.’

James wiped something from his eye but pretended he was wiping cake off his face. ‘Yeah, Esteban?’ he asked. ‘Who’d you hear that from?’

It was a big wedding, the biggest. There was no topping that.

For once, James didn’t bother with trying. He was thirty-two, larger than ever, brushing his teeth in front of the bathroom mirror, splashing cold water on his face and stepping out of the way to let Steve have his turn at the sink. After that, they headed out and got married, a civil service with a stranger off the street acting as witness.

‘I do,’ James said.

The whole galaxy didn’t have to hold its collective breath. Steve did, when James kissed him, soft and quick at the corner of his mouth, then a second time—because the first wasn’t enough.

*

‘Hey,’ Steve said, knees braced on either side of James’s hips. His waist was thinner than the rest of him but still pretty damn thick and Steve had to bend over to say it, right at the nape of James’s neck, where his shoulders held all his tension—not just from that day, not just from the night before, but from years of carrying the heavy stuff.

It was something he hadn’t worked out when he was younger, back when he was always working out.

No matter how good it sounded, it didn’t compare to how good it felt. Steve was the one doing all the work now: working his palms against the muscles that needed them until they were working with him, until James wasn’t even shifting anymore beneath Steve’s weight. Not even rolling his hips into the mattress, not even sighing and sighing at the way it felt.

He _was_ smiling, though.

Steve could always feel it in the back of his neck.

He kissed the old tattoo, the second-to-last one James got a few years before he ended up with _Esteban_ on the inside of his wrist.

It could’ve been over the heart, he said, but there was a pulse under the ink, something he saw every day. Right now it was tucked under his chin, the only thing holding him up, Steve’s name at his jaw like another kiss.

‘Guess I can’t call you Mr. Vega anymore,’ Steve said, and drew James back into his arms, kneeling there where he belonged, in between his legs.

**END**

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Mo! (Who truly deserves a far better execution of this fluffy concept!)


End file.
